"Doris Piserchia - A Billion Days of Earth" - читать интересную книгу автора (Piserchia Doris)

love me."
"Why?"
"It's against the rules. Gods love Gods, men love men, tares love tares. That's the way it is."
The front portion of Sheen rose in the air and seemed to look about. Earth appeared peaceful. The sky was blue, the
sun was orange, the grass was richly green. Without eyes, Sheen saw. His mind touched everything. A mile away, a
family of tares made a new burrow in the side of a hill. The mother and father took turns guarding the young and
widen-ing the excavation. They would remain together all their lives and have many children. In a few days they would
gather with all the mature tares in their area and confer with one an-other. They would discuss the weather, food,
enemies, life. Five miles away, the grass ended and desert began. Sheen looked no further. He was too busy now.
"Do you love nothing in all infinity but tares?" he said.
"Yes, of course, but that isn't the same thing."
Sheen swayed. He no longer came down the mountain but lay across the valley in a thin coil. His head, which had no
features, was raised several feet straight up in the air. "I don't understand."
"It's confusing no matter what you are, I guess," said the tare. "One way you can tell what you love is by eliminat-ing
everything repulsive to you. You love what's left."
"Nothing is repulsive to me."
"Then you must be very inexperienced. As you go along you'll find plenty to turn your stomach. In fact, most of your
life will be spent avoiding those things."
The head and neck of Sheen lowered and coiled at the tare's feet for a moment and then quickly shot into the air like an
alert snake. "Enough. Take my heart that we shall be one."
"You said that before." The little tare trembled. "I'm trying to move. There's something wrong with my damned legs.
Don't come any closer."
"I think we will merge."
"I don't know what that means, but I don't like the sound of it. I don't want to."
"Yes, you do."
"No!"
Sheen stopped. "Why do you stand there if you want to run?"
"You know why. Release me."
"I'm not in contact with you."
The little beast opened frightened eyes and saw it was true. "You hold me with invisible hands. They're in my mind,
pulling at me like magnets."
"Have these hands a voice?"
"A confounding one. No lover ever sounded more allur-ing. You can't keep so many promises. You lie."
"I've said nothing."
"Lord, lover, companion, tutor, haven! You lie, Sheen! Why do you lie? And why pick on me? See there in the grass,
the creature with the shell? It's a jare. Take it and let me
go."
"Ah, well, go, if you insist. I choose the lesser creature."
The tare bit himself. "You're holding me!"
"I swear I'm not."
"Don't you know yourself? Take away the picture you've planted in my mind. How can I think straight with that
dangling in front of me?"
"Describe the picture, please."
"I don't believe it. Nothing could be that beautiful. This is still the same damned dirty world around us."
Sheen swayed gracefully. "Is life so full of disillusion-ment?"
"Nothing is the way it should be. Even the elements conspire against me. It's a terrible world full of cruelty."
"Sad, sad."
The furry face twisted, the mouth drooped. "Tares are stupid and hard. No wonder men regard us as nonentities.
Poverty, misery, ignorance; what do tares care as long as they have their carrots and their tail every night? Animal
comforts are all they're concerned with."